Finally figured out one of my big frustrations with the affinity slider - and it's an easy fix. But I'm curious how many others have the same frustration or if I'm (as usual) just a bit too picky.

Currently the affinity slider applies to every use of the /network page. I find many times that I will go to a forum to view new items, but because of the affinity slider settings, not everything shows up.

The biggest frustration with this is that my notification badges don't clear and I still see notifications for unseen messages on forums that I have specifically visited (often to clear the notifications!)

I'm wondering if it might not be better to make the affinity slider NOT apply when other filters apply (for example, when you have specifically chosen to read a forum or view a specific contact using the /network stream)?

Honestly, I don't use the slider at all. If I want/need to filter, I use my privacy groups and that works very well. To me, the slider is a nice-to-have gadget which does a great job to "impress" a new user because it's a very smart concept. But in my day-to-day use, it's more a gadget in the drawer about which you forgot that you have it...

I don't use the slider. I found it confusing to have "Friends" and "Acquaintances" as privacy groups but those groups have no relationship to "Friends" and "Acquaintances" in the slider. I prefer the privacy groups. So, I use the groups to both control to whom I post and for filtering my feed.

i like that the notifications are not affected by the slider. this way i filter out things i don't consider that important from my stream, but still see if those who fall below the slider value post something. gives me the option to look at their posts if i want to.

At this point, I think your assessment is fairly accurate. But as the network grows, I think it will become much more useful. I already see some utility. I leave my max at about 80% and have some things that I put above 80% (rss feeds, or 'fun' stuff or things that I would get bogged down with. I should have more above that threshhold to avoid some rabbitholes).

The only other thing I really would like to see is persistence of change in the slider - so that if it is changed, it remembers the last change and doesn't reset to your "settings" (maybe after x hours without a reset or something).

Just ideas and personal frustrations - but I hesitate to dig in and change them - especially not without hearing from others. If I do anything it will likely result in another option/setting (sigh).

I have got a very detailed idea for this which is very much inspired by the slider and would create a slider on stereoides without being a slider anymore. Will create a lineout when home. Tried using the slider but it turned out to be too clumsy for my special usecase. Additionally it turned out to be cumbersome which rss feed I set to be which kind of friend or family member, so I gave up.

@phani (Hubzilla) - I like that notifications aren't affected also (that was my first thought - make notifications subject to the slider - but I agree with you, I like that I know about them without needing to read them).

What I'm talking about is, even if I see that there is a notification in a specific forum and click on that forum, I may not see the post that caused the notification because the affinity slider also applies when I look at the forum through the /network page. So I see a notification for a forum, but the post is authored by either someone I'm not connected to (default affinity = 99) or someone I have set above my current max (usually about 80).

Add this to the fact that even if I'm in a mood to "see everything" and change my affinity slider to 0-100 - when I jump to another page, it resets to my 0-80 preference setting and I have to slide it out yet again.

Basically - these two factors intersect in a way that I find abrasive. I could probably live with one or the other being changed. Either the affinity slider persists and remembers whatever it was most recently changed to (without needing to visit the "settings" page) - OR - the affinity slider didn't apply if some other filter setting applied (like you are looking at a specific forum or looking at a privacy group or something similar). But both of them as they are is one of those pebbles under the saddle things for me.

I can understand that confusion. The code has hooks to allow different designations on the slider. So that would be a fairly easy thing to modify. That would just be a matter of coming up with a more reasonable scale.

Personally I REALLY like the concept. I'd be very interested in seeing what @h.ear.t | tobias is thinking. I've come up with some pretty extreme revisions myself a while back - never sat down to code them (yet). I think that some way to create some sort of "personalized algorithm" for your feed would be great. How processing intensive it would be may be the issue.

I am astonished that it became even much simpler than my first thoughts.

First I suggest a privacy group "catch-all" or "default" you cannot change where automatically any connection will be put. My reasoning: Yes, that can be set now, but I need custom/expert mode for it, which is discouraged. As of now the default is to add connections to no privacy group. Such a default group could encourage simple private posting to all without much action. If I want additional groups for family, friends etc. I can create them.

As of now privacy group configuration deviates from the new rule to put settings near to where they are used for. It's an app, far away. It's been more logical the way it was, IMO this has become less intuitive. Bring back the pencil etc.And there should be a button that opens a filter dialogue where I can enable or disable display of privacy group members by ticking a box. Then I would not need to provide values for each connection and later remember whether I had Rolling Stone set up as friends and Pitchfork as family and where was Headphonica?

Now here's a drawback. What if I had filters on and created a new post? I'd suggest that should propagate to the ACL.

This is also why this dialogue must be quicky available and a include a "reset" button.

These are my thoughts right now. I guess it could be refined, but I hope you get the direction.

And yes, the overall stream will not be filterable. I first wanted checkboxes on top, but - no. A clear NO.I hope this might also encourage and lead people to make more use of privacy groups.Any thoughts are welcome.

i think having the slider 'remember' it's position every time it's set would be ideal. it's on top of the page at each page load so it's easy to remember and change, and would avoid those cumbersome visits to the settings page.

Sorry all.... that was.... ummm. "FUN"... Anyway. Rather than spamming the network with a couple thousand "delete" messages... (I started to, then realized that was somewhat counter productive).... Let's just let the thread die a slow/painful death as it gets thrust further down the list. If someone wants to pick it up - please start another.

CHANNELBOT has been disabled (for sure this time) until I can figure out what happened and which check(s) got missed for him to be disabled (I had shut him down - or at least thought I had before stepping away from the keyboard.) Again, sorry about that.